Now that Dr van Paradijs's team, and another led by Kailash Sahu at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, have had time to look properly at the fading point of light, they have noticed a faint fuzz around it that looks as if it could be a galaxy playing host to a dramatic explosion.
The timing of the Lumia launch will however put Nokia in direct competition with a host of popular smartphones such as the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy Note II.
Yet, even roughly Earth-sized planets abound - more recent research suggests that one in six stars has a planet of about Earth's size in an orbit close to their host stars - making for at least 17 billion in our galaxy alone.